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HOUSTON—It’s difficult for an NBA team to dig out from a bad start, as the margin for error gets slimmer and slimmer as the regular season progresses.

Look no further than the Houston Rockets for proof.

The Rockets, losers of three straight prior to Friday’s game with the Toronto Raptors, have been unable to recover from a brutal start to the season, a month that set them so far back they cannot afford even a small stumble now.

It is why coaches repeatedly preach that games in November and December are as important as those in March and April, and that early-season chemistry and success are vital.

Coming off an appearance in the Western Conference final a season ago, the Rockets seemed poised to be legitimate challengers to the Golden State Warriors again.

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They had a formidable one-two punch in James Harden and Dwight Howard, added point guard Ty Lawson, and still had proven complementary players like Patrick Beverley and Trevor Ariza. They had every reason to be optimistic.

A 5-10 start — coach Kevin McHale was fired mid-November with the team 4-7 and sinking fast — is the primary reason the Rockets today are chasing Utah, Dallas and Portland for the final three Western Conference playoff spots.

“There is no time in the West,” general manager Daryl Morey said when he fired McHale on Nov. 19, elevating J.B. Bickerstaff to the head coaching position.

Today, those words ring prescient.

Yes, back-to-back last-possession losses to Oklahoma City and Utah this week were crushing. Being beaten by the Thunder on another Russell Westbrook triple-double on the road is one thing, but blowing an 18-point lead at home against Utah and losing on a blown last-second defensive play that allowed a game-winning Derrick Favors dunk is quite another.

“It’s tough coming off the road trip losing two tough ones, then coming home and losing another tough one,” was how Harden put it.

But those current mishaps are just continued payment for the sins committed by the Rockets early in the season, when they seemed incapable of finding the chemistry they had during their run to the conference final just about eight months ago.

The Rockets may very well scrape into the final playoff spot in the West — the Jazz are more unproven in the taught final weeks of a regular season — but all that would do is set up a first-round series with either Golden State or San Antonio and that’s hardly a reason for Rocket fans to get excited.

But either way, fans are likely to point to this week as when the season truly went south; the truth is the trouble of the first month was just too deep to get out of.

Around the Game

Hot at the right time?

There is plenty of time left until the regular season ends, and the fortunes of teams can swing wildly in the next three weeks. Still, the Charlotte Hornets are obviously headed in the right direction in a rather dramatic turnaround. Charlotte’s an Eastern Conference-best 18-5 since Feb. 1 and is getting hot at the right time of the season.

Feb. 1 is an arbitrary date, and the Hornets aren’t even in a position to have homecourt advantage in the first round, but finishing strong should make them a tough post-season out. It should also get Steve Clifford some consideration in coach of the year voting.

Wonderful night, for no benefit

Tony Allen of the Memphis Grizzlies is accurately known as one of the truly elite defenders in the NBA; Kobe Bryant of the Lakers said earlier this season Allen was the player he least wanted to play against. The knock on Allen was always his offence and shooting ability, so when he dropped a 12-for-12 night from the field on the Lakers on Tuesday night, eyebrows were raised.

His 27 points were his season high, and it had to feel good coming against Bryant and the Lakers but also bittersweet, since Memphis ended up 107-100 losers.

Oh, and Bryant had 20 points in the win.

Shocking numbers

Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder continues to put some astonishing stats in the record book. He is having the kind of season that’s sure to put him in the conversation for Most Valuable Player runner-up to Golden State’s Stephen Curry.

Heading into play Thursday, Westbrook had rung up 15 triple-doubles this season. The last player with that many was Magic Johnson, who had 17 in 1988-89. How has it translated for the Thunder? In those 15 games, Oklahoma City is 15-0. And if it seems triple-doubles are on the rise this season, it’s because they are. Going into Thursday night there had been 61 — the most in an NBA season since 1989-90 and a mark surely.

Coming back or not?

Blake Griffin hasn’t played a game for the Los Angeles Clippers since Christmas Day, sidelined first with a quadriceps tendon injury and then the broken hand suffered in that Toronto fistfight with an assistant equipment manager.

Will Griffin be back before the end of the regular season? Maybe. Maybe not.

“I can’t say that with 100 per cent certainty, but I do feel like he’ll be back,” coach Doc Rivers said. “Just not sure when.”

Rivers added there was “no concern” Griffin would miss the rest of the year, but that seemed more wishful thinking than certainty. The other thing to remember? Griffin still has to serve a four-game, team-levied suspension for his part in the fight.

One that got away

In a conversation earlier this month, Raptors905 head coach Jesse Mermuys referred to the D-League as the “Wild West” when it came to player movement and roster stability.

He’d seen Delon Wright, Norm Powell, Lucas Nogueira and Bruno Caboclo come and go repeatedly, sent down and recalled by the Raptors weekly it seemed. It went beyond that, too, and this week it was reaffirmed. The Minnesota Timberwolves have signed one-time 905 big man Greg Smith for the rest of the season after giving him two 10-day contracts, and the Denver Nuggets reportedly signed Axel Toupane to a two-year deal Thursday.

That takes away any possibility of the Raptors905 getting two key players back.

Historical season

What the Warriors and San Antonio Spurs are doing this season is amazing.

They are a combined 124-18 in the regular season and while there have been blips (Warriors losing to Lakers, Spurs blowing a huge lead in Charlotte this week) they have set themselves apart from the rest of the league, and are pursuing unprecedented success.

Never has an NBA team gone an entire regular season unbeaten at home — Boston was 41-1 in 1985-86 — but both the Warriors and Spurs are chasing that record. Golden State is 33-0 at Oracle Arena and San Antonio is 36-0 at the ATT Center.

It sets up the possibility of an epic seven-game Western Conference final, one that no doubt has many fans drooling over.

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